Posted by Håkan Ljung on 17th February 2004 at 14:24 GMT
Posted from 212.105.9.204 (md46909cc.utfors.se)
In reply to Re: German hockey - European competion posted by flofloflo on 15th February 2004 at 02:22 GMT:
Hello FloFloFlo,
You say good things and you deserve my respect. You also said you admited you did not have good coaches in the past in German hockey. I was not wrong after all. It looks better today you say. I dont know so much about that. I try to be as honest to myself as I can, because you and all the others on this site deserves good information. I also think there are lot of visitors on the Fan Forum who knows many things I dont know so much about.
These pre-season games are about make your team work before the domestic league start. If you want to expriment with your lin-ups you better do it now. So, if one loses games here and there no one really cares, even if they tries to win. Most Elitserien teams attend at least 3 tournaments during pre-season. 2 normally are international ones. It´s difficult keep up and follow all of them at the same time. My impression is we are NOT losing all the time against Russian, Finnish and Swiss teams.
Many of these teams coaches are long term friends. Vladimir Jurisinov have many coach friends in Finland and Sweden. They really looking forward each year to see their friends and learn more hockey from each other. They train each others squads and stuff and exchange ideas. It´s a very nice and humble community we have.
If Djurgården loses against Kloten Flyers with Jurisinov in the coachstand, with NHL and former Dynamo Moscow players like Yashin and Zjamnov in the Kloten squad, what does that prove? Of course both teams try to win if they can.
I agree, it is very tight. Particulary between SM-liga and Elitserien. I talked with a very high official on the phone the other day and he told me that Russia cannot be top ranked because the Russian league is so very uneven league. The difference between the 3-4 top teams and the bottom is enormous. The teams in the middle seldom win over top 4. The battle is between SM-liga and Elitserien. He wants to avoid to messure Finland - Swedend. Between 1990-99 he said, Elitserien was clearly Europes number 1. All I can say is, this was the truth.
Danish hockey will never be able to have a good top domestic league, since the country will allways have to little infra-structure. Denmark have only 4 100 players and 17 rinks in the country, compared to Germanys 20 000 and 149. What they clould strive for, is to have a real good top junior league. I think junior hockey in Europe deserve good attendance like in Canada.
The Danish wonder is more about what I started to talk to you about using European coaches/trainers insted. Danish hockey is a joint venture between our federations and leagues. Denmark is know a part of Swedens entire icehockey.
It was smart of the Danes to only use competence from one country. That´s why our federation and leagues have been so extra helpful. Offering services for free, something Danish hockey never could afford by themselfs.
They kicked out all import coaches and replaced them with Swedes and kept the native Danish coaches in the league. As soon a new promising young Danish player emerge they just lift the phone and send him to Swedish Elitserien. Sometimes some of them are here just for summertraining with a club. Some of the new young Danes is unbelievibly talented. Others are absolutely fantastic. This is how the Danish wonder has come about. We have proved this is possible without having a good infra-structure of your own and using a another country´s possibilities.
I would like to see Netherlands/Belgium take contact with Finlands hockey and do a similar thing. I am sure the Finns would be very helpful. Then I think all North American coaches have to go and be replaced by Finns. The Dutch and Belgium players would then surely develop themselfs as rockets in the sky.
British hockey could take contact with Czech hockey. Austria can take contact with Slovak hockey. Italians can take contact with Russia. Then we could have a one big large hockey family in Europe.
Håkan